Tuesday CCC Updates
– Back for another year the CCC will again have Pactimo Leaders Jerseys… this year with a women’s cut version for the ladies.
– In case you missed it 2 weeks ago the 2015 and 2016 CCC series will be “Powered by SRAM“.
– All 11 events in the 2015 CCC will have One2Go timing, lap times, and new for 2015 real time LiveLynx Results. Please make sure to search for LiveLynx Results and not just LiveLynx… just trust us on that one. Because of the increased accuracy of having a camera running all day long the series is also increasing the self imposed 100 rider field limits of a few categories. No this is not a money grab, we’re just opening up a few more spots for the fields that tend to sell out on BikeReg.com so there are fewer waitlists to deal with.
– Speaking of BikeReg, the individual race directors are working on getting their races permitted with USAC and we’ll have pre-reg pages up on BikeReg sometime around the end of July or beginning of August and open pre-reg for most if not all events at the beginning of September.
– All 11 events will also include SRAM Neutral Race Support as well as Kenny Labbe announcing all day long.
– Speaking of all day long, the CCC series directors thought long and hard and tried to figure out a better race day schedule, but without any luck. There are just too many people in too many categories who want to race CX from September to December where we have less daylight to work with. Despite a few predictions to the contrary we think last year’s schedule worked as well as any could have. Considering the new staging changes (see below) and raising of field limits we feel leaving the race day schedule unchanged from 2014 will work fine again.
– Speaking of same schedules, the same 11 events from the 2014 season will be back for 2015 with the exception of Carpenter Park. Due to construction at Carpenter Park the crew at Main St. Bikes and the Sasquatch Squadron are temporarily moving the event 3.5 miles to the West to Randall Oaks Park. Race director Jeff Provisor tells us Randall Oaks has more space and even though there may not be a corn field (or Chubby Spud) the racing will be just as rad. We’ll update the series Google Map soon.
– No changes to the series minimum purse. Some events may increase payouts if they have the means, but given the scoring upgrades, neutral support, announcing, etc… and the fact that entry fee prices have remained the same for at least the last 5 or 6 years, all riders in the series are getting more bang for their buck than ever before. Remember payouts for the Men & Women Cat 1/2/3 races already scale up with the overall number of pre-reg’d riders.
– If you are interested in becoming a 2015 CCC Series Sponsor please review our 2015 proposal and contact us at ChicagoCrossCup@gmail.com.
– And finally… we did some spreadsheet magic (see Hopkins and Montrose, all races to follow eventually) and found that CrossResults.com rankings are actually very indicative of where riders should be staged during the entire season, regardless of CCC points. That being said this is still a series with series standings so it wouldn’t make sense not to use them at all. We initially considered staging the first 2 rows by CCC points for the whole season, then all others by CXR rankings, but then we thought that staging mid/downstate riders no better than the 3rd row at Montrose didn’t make sense either. Since riders good enough to win the state championship could probably win from the 4th row (see 35 seconds in) we decided staging the first row by CCC points and all other rows by CXR rankings for the entire season was a good compromise. Long story short, if you’re fast but not racing the entire series and earning CCC series points (traveling to far off lands, injury, ate too much ice cream, etc) you’ll be staged no worse than the 2nd row. Also CrossResuts rankings already handle DNF’s so those of you who have asked over the years to have your worst placing thrown out kinda, sorta get what you’ve been asking for. The Series Rules & FAQs page will be updated soon.
Maybe it’s time to start talking deeper points. With the increase in field sizes to 125 for some categories, points are now less than 25% of the field instead of 30%….
Four of the 5 Wild Trak races went up on crossresults. Not sure why the first one missed out. Crossresults usually scrapes results from USAC and posts them. Email me if results are missing and I also have the ability to upload them. Most promoters can’t.
Thanks for the reply Carlos, glad to hear the issue is resolved.
Thank you for your efforts to improve the series year after year. Growth is a good problem to have even with the challenges that come with. Riders need to be aware that not all promoters report results of their races to Crossresults. Happened to me last year, I did a couple of the Wild Trak SuperPrestige races in Alton, IL. I was informed by Crossresults that is up to the promoter to report the results, thus missed those points. Just a heads up.
Once again, the directors of the ChiCrossCup make intelligent changes rooted in the healthy growth of the sport and what is best for all participants. Seriously, I’m impressed. Political leaders take note.
Great plans and organization, thanks guys!
Ps: Just out of technological curiosity because I am sure you considered timing chips yet decided in favor of cameras (with automatic optical character recognition): does USA Cycling have any plans to add a personal timing chip that stays constant for the season to each license? Even so, I guess logistically the camera is easier than dealing with chips for one-day licenses and to check chip placement for all bikes? Or is it that RFID receivers are more expensive? Curious why RFID chips (which at first glance seem like a desirable real time technology but I don’t know the specific considerations for bike racing)…
Jan, We are not aware of any USAC plans to add timing chips to licenses.
Concerning cameras vs. RFID chips, you hit the nail on the head, i.e. logistics and cost. Please also read the article below from 2012 about One2Go.
http://velonews.competitor.com/2012/11/news/cyclocross/at-the-usgp-how-do-they-do-that-so-fast-and-without-timing-chips_264895
Thanks Jason. Great link!
The problem is that with the changes, you basically are telling anyone not in the top 10 to go screw yourselves! Since I am not top 10 and with the rule changes never have the chance to, you have removed any incentive to race the whole series.
I used to race all the races week by week, slowly improving my call up by scoring series points and thus my crossresults value. With cyclocross, position at the start is everything (unless you are Sven Nys, which I am not). You have basically frozen me at my place, with little hope to improve my position and no reason to race the entire series. I will just race the ones near my house because series points are meaningless now. Thanks for freeing up a couple Sundays for me!
I’m not sure why you think the new policy is sending that message. Something like that message was being sent back when they only staged the first row and everyone else had to fight for position 15-20 minutes before the call-ups. Yes, starting position is very important in cross. If you want to improve your starting position, but are not likely to be in the first row with CCC points, train a little harder, ride faster, and finish a little higher. When you finish higher your cross results points will go up and you will be staged closer to the front.
One good thing about the new system is that it will avoid a problematic scenario that occurs almost every year: a rider who is among the very best in his/her category DNF’s the first race of the series due to a mechanical or whatever. For the next race they would have to stage behind every rider that has even a single CCC point (and anyone who hadn’t raced in that category yet but had decent cross results points). That could put them as far as five rows back. I think it’s more fair to place such riders in the second row.
It’s true that the new staging method deemphasizes the importance of competing every week, at least for people who aren’t competing for the series title (or the front row). One benefit, however, is that it might encourage people to attend some of the bigger regional races without compromising their staging position when they return to the CCC.